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The ‘Swansea City Song’, written by the late Roger Evans, is a firm fan favourite.

And, as part of our on-going #ItCanBeDone campaign urging the region to get behind the Swans as they fight for survival in the Premier League, we’ve had a look back at its origins, and the secret tale connected with it.

It all began in early 1978, when Swans fan and local poet, Mervyn Read, had an idea for a Swansea City song, but upon presenting the idea to the board, was told by Chairman, Malcolm Struel, that a man from Llanelli had already written one. That man being Roger Evans.

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Mr Struel played Mr Read the track, but upon hearing it, Mr Read felt that the song was too folky and needed some re-arranging. He offered his services to produce the song and travelled up to London with Mr Struel for a meeting with EMI Records to arrange a national release.

“After a discussion with EMI, what they were prepared to give us as a percentage wasn’t worthwhile, so we decided to release the track ourselves,” said Mr Read.

Mr Read and Mr Evans then teamed up to go through the song and re-arrange it.

Mervyn Read who helped compose a legendary Swansea City fans anthem

“Roger had already written the bulk of the track, but the original version didn’t have the Tottenham or Ardilles references, neither did it have the line about Toshack.

“We looked at the club’s current situation and re-arranged it by inserting verses to make it interesting to the fans of the time.”

The demo was recorded at Hot Town Music in Swansea.

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It involved going down to the Vetch and recording the whole team singing in the VIP lounge, including players such as Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan, Alan Curtis, Robbie James and player-manager John Toshack.

Although the result sounded good, it wasn’t perfect. Mervyn wanted the shouts in the song to stand out and sound more powerful. For this, he called upon the services of the Dunvant Male Voice Choir and the 3M’s football team.

With all three parties, including the Swans team involved, they created the perfect blend of vocals to back Roger’s lead. Everything was then mixed at RG Jones Studios in Wimbledon.

“It felt alive and was full of excitement. We really had a great mix,” said Mr Read.

On the evening of March 20, 1979, the Swans played host to Elton John's Division Three leaders Watford. A win over the Hornets would put third place City within 2 points of the top. What better place to launch the new club song than in front of a packed out Vetch Field crowd of 20,000.

To make things even better, the Swans finished on top, winning 3-2 on the night.

In an Evening Post interview, the club’s press and public relations officer, Chris Smart, claimed the track was regarded as one of the finest football songs around according to some of the industry’s top dogs.

Mr Read recalled there being many memorable moments during their promotional Vetch Field performances, including Swansea Council’s environmental health department trying to shut them down for playing too loud.

However, the story that stuck out the most was a little secret that Mr Read, Mr Evans and the band had been hiding all these years.

“We had a tape machine hidden under a cover right by where the Swansea board were sitting in the director’s box. They were oblivious to what was going on, thinking everything was live. The boys would then come on to the pitch looking as if they were all mic’d up and plugged into amps but it was just a backing track that we used, with a live vocal for Roger,” said Mr Read.

Mervyn Read getting the backing track ready at the Vetch in 1979

“We sold out in about three weeks, so we then had to have another 2,000 singles made. We eventually managed to sell 11,000,

“We knew it was a good song, but no way did we think that it would still be sung with people loving it all these years later.